Named for the Oregon suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway, our speaker series uses the podium to honor the women who have paved the path of leadership for women in Oregon today, and to blaze new trails for the women who will lead us toward a brighter future in the 21st century.

The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future.

— Abigail Scott Duniway

On May 7, 2015, the series featured Dr. Leslie Schwindt-Bayer of Rice University. Dr. Schwindt-Bayer is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rice University and the author of numerous renowned publications on women and leadership. The keynote address focused on her research on the common stereotype that women leaders are more honest than men, and the consequences of this stereotype for women's behavior in office.

On April 24, 2014, the series highlighted national equal pay leader, Lilly Ledbetter. Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici delivered closing remarks at the Ledbetter keynote address to a sold out room. Lilly Ledbetter shared her inspiring story of being at the center of the historic discrimination case that inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. Ledbetter spoke to the progress of equal pay and building women's leadership. Hear more from Lilly's visit in this Q&A with the Oregonian.